McConnell: Gorsuch Will Be Confirmed This Week With or Without Democrats

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made it unequivocally clear Sunday that Judge Neil Gorsuch will be confirmed to the Supreme Court this week one way or another.

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On “Fox News Sunday,” McConnell added that even if Democrats do not provide the eight votes that are needed to break a filibuster, Gorsuch would be approved this week to replace the late Antonin Scalia on the bench.

Republicans have 52 Senators that will vote in favor of Gorsuch, meaning they only need eight Democrats in order to avoid using the “nuclear option.”

The nuclear option is a rarely used procedure that allows the U.S. Senate to override a rule or precedent by a 51-vote majority.

During McConnell’s interview, he indicated that he planned to “file cloture on the Gorsuch nomination,” which would launch the process that Senate rules provide for breaking a filibuster.

“Cloture could be invoked, it could not be invoked,” said McConnell. “All I can tell you is Judge Gorsuch is going to be confirmed.”

Cloture must be invoked in order to prevent a filibuster, but McConnell argued it won’t matter for Gorsuch.

McConnell said he would “not play out how this ends,” other than to pledge that Gorsuch would end up on the high court. “There are a number of ways to get in,” he added.

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Gorsuch deserves to be confirmed. Democrats claiming he didn’t “answer their questions” or using any other tactic are merely playing politics.

Whether the Democrats play ball or not, Gorsuch will be confirmed. Filling the Supreme Court vacancy is one of the most important tasks this year and Republicans must get this done so that conservative values are restored to the Court again.

Democrats up for re-election in 2018 better think long and hard about which path they take this week when the vote occurs.

A handful of Democrats up for re-election next year are in deep red states that voted for Trump, and voting against Gorsuch could help Republicans take their seats next year if they vote don’t vote to confirm Gorsuch.

“We are going to get Judge Gorsuch confirmed,” he said. “How that happens is up to the Democrats.”

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